Fig. 5. Map displaying the slope (colour scale) and adjusted R2 (size scale) for the linear regression of green infrastructure variables on per capita income. A separate linear model was performed for each municipal district (see Fig. 1), and points reflect the municipality centroids. The reader can interpret these values as the slope and fit of the linear trend lines plotted in Fig. 3 except here they are stratified by district municipality and not race.
Urban green infrastructure provides ecosystem services that are essential to human wellbeing. A dearth of national-scale assessments in the Global South has precluded the ability to explore how political regimes, such as the forced racial segregation in South Africa during and after Apartheid, have influenced the extent of and access to green infrastructure over time. We investigate whether there are disparities in green infrastructure distributions across race and income geographies in urban South Africa. Using open-source satellite imagery and geographic information, along with national census statistics, we find that public and private green infrastructure is more abundant, accessible, greener and more treed in high-income relative to low-income areas, and in areas where previously advantaged racial groups (i.e. White citizens) reside.
